 |
| William Robert Athletes Exercising in a Gymnasium 1920 watercolor Tate, London |
 |
| Roger Fry Still-life with T'ang Horse ca. 1920-21 oil on canvas Tate, London |
 |
| Glyn Warren Philpot Three Figures ca. 1921 chalk and watercolor on paper Tate, London |
 |
| Henri Braakensiek Chestnut Blossom 1922 lithograph Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Dora Carrington Farm at Watendlath 1921 oil on canvas Tate, London |
 |
| Dora Carrington Spanish Landscape with Mountains ca. 1924 oil on canvas Tate, London |
Dirge Without Music
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains, – but the best is lost.
The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love, –
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
– Edna St. Vincent Millay (1928)
 |
| Georgia O'Keeffe Grey Lines with Black, Blue and Yellow ca. 1923 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
 |
| Georgia O'Keeffe Two Calla Lilies on Pink 1928 oil on canvas Philadelphia Museum of Art |
 |
| Pierre Bonnard Nude in the Bath 1925 oil on canvas Tate, London |
 |
| El Lissitzky Title-page for designs from the opera Victory over the Sun 1923 lithograph Tate, London |
 |
| René Magritte Man with a Newspaper 1928 oil on canvas Tate, London |
The Man Whose Pharynx Was Bad
The time of year has grown indifferent.
Mildew of summer and the deepening snow
Are both alike in the routine I know:
I am too dumbly in my being pent.
The wind attendant on the solstices
Blows on the shutters of the metropoles,
Stirring no poet in his sleep, and tolls
The grand ideas of the villages.
The malady of the quotidian . . .
Perhaps if summer ever came to rest
And lengthened, deepened, comforted, caressed
Through days like oceans in obsidian
Horizons, full of night's midsummer blaze;
Perhaps, if winter once could penetrate
Through all its purples to the final slate,
Persisting bleakly in an icy haze;
One might in turn become less diffident,
Out of such mildew plucking neater mould
And spouting new orations of the cold.
One might. One might. But time will not relent.
– Wallace Stevens (1921)
 |
| Matthew Smith Peonies 1928 oil on canvas Tate, London |
 |
| Edouard Antonin Vysekal The Herwigs 1928 oil on canvas Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
 |
| Francis Bacon Painted Screen ca. 1929 oil on panels Tate, London on long-term loan from a private collection |